The quarterly updates for the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available!  These updates reflect key regulatory changes and ongoing efforts to keep providers up to date on virtual care guidelines.

On February 3, 2026, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, was passed, extending Medicare telehealth flexibilities through December 31, 2027. This ensures continued access to virtual care for Medicare beneficiaries and reinforces the role of telehealth in modern healthcare delivery, particularly for rural and underserved communities.

The quarterly updates to the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available!

The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2026 (H.R. 5371) extended current telehealth flexibilities, retroactive to October 1, and allows the flexibilities outlined below to remain in effect through January 30, 2026. In addition, CMS released the Calendar Year 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule (CMS-1832-F), which includes several important telehealth policy changes summarized below.

The quarterly updates for the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi Virtual Visit Billing Guides are now available! Payors were fairly quiet this past quarter, but with 2026 on the horizon, we can expect some shifts when CMS releases finalized 2026 telehealth guidance.

CMS has released the Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule (CMS-1832-P), which includes several important telehealth changes detailed below. Remember, this is still a proposed rule, the final version will be published in November, and some details may change.

Medicare Telehealth Coverage & Billing: Post-Expiration

On October 1, 2025, the federal government shut down after Congress failed to pass a FY 2026 spending bill. With that, the Medicare telehealth flexibilities, which had been extended throughout the pandemic, have officially expired. Read more about what this means for healthcare providers below.

On July 14, 2025 the unpublished version of the the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2026 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) was released (the official version was subsequently published in the Federal Register).

The PFS is the channel that CMS uses to update, change, or introduce new policies that will impact the Medicare program and typically go into effect on the first of the new year. The telehealth community is interested to see if a similar approach will be taken that was used for the 2025 PFS, where several policies were introduced as a precautionary measure to mitigate the potential effects of an expiration to the temporary Medicare telehealth waivers.

Our friends at the CCHP released a newly created factsheet containing a more detailed analysis of the telehealth elements within the proposed 2026 PFS. View the full PFS here and the CCHP Fact Sheet by clicking the link through the button below!

View the third quarterly update for 2025 has just been published. Take a look at all the changes for the South Central Region (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee) as well as our Archive!

Following the wave of 2025 policy changes, most payors have remained relatively quiet this quarter, with few new updates as their telehealth and virtual care policies appear to have stabilized a bit more.

Read more through the link below.

View the second quarterly update for 2025 has just been published. Take a look at all the changes for the South Central Region (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee) as well as our Archive!

Along with the exciting news that current Medicare telehealth flexibilities were extended through September 30th, 2025 via recently passed legislation, several changes within the Commercial and Medicaid space also occurred this past quarter, as payors continue to evaluate the newly released 2025 telehealth E/M codes.